(The UK English translation of) a novel by
Danish author
Peter Hoeg.
The original title was something like "Froken Smillas Fornemmelse for Sne", which seems to have proved hard to translate, both literally and meaningfully. The American translation was titled "
Smilla's Sense of Snow". The two translations also have some some interesting textual differences.
The book is about a woman named
Smilla Jaspersen, a half-
Greenlandic, half Danish
mathematician. I found the fabric of the world depicted to be very real and striking. One of those first-person
narrator books that makes you forget that it's fictional.
Cold themes.
It has also been made into a pretty good movie, using the American title but occasionally with a "feeling for" instead of the "sense of" to confuse matters further. The movie was made in English, and starred
Julia Ormond who fit perfectly with my visual impression of the character.